Sunlight
by sheriffandsteel
Summary: Isn't it strange how sunbeams seem so much brighter in dark places?


She was beautiful, but not in the way people usually meant when they attached that word to someone's name. Her beauty wasn't in her pleasant features, it was in the softness of her soul. It was in the sweet way her words dripped off her tongue like honey. In the way her too bright blue eyes watched over everyone so carefully, not out of caution but curiosity and care. Her beauty was found in the strength she'd found buried in some deep part of her after she'd thought she'd run out of it all.

Yet despite all the beauty that shrouded her none of these things were the reason Daryl found his eyes trailing after her as she moved about the farm. It wasn't the sound of her laugh that would draw his eye from skinning rabbits, it was the sun glinting off of her blonde hair. Her hair was the same color as the straw that had blown out of the hayloft to float around the farm on blustery days. She kept it pulled back into a messy ponytail and Daryl caught himself wondering at times when his hands were idle and she was within his line of sight how long her hair was. More than once he'd had to curl his fingers into the palms of his hands as she brushed past him- _too close_ his frantic mind often whispered-so that he would not reach out and touch her hair. He wanted to feel for himself if it was as rough as the straw its color so closely resembled.

He didn't know what it was about her hair that kept his eyes trained to her. They never spoke, they never had the need too. Besides, what would a man like him ever have to say to a girl like her? Daryl had caught her daddy watching him looking at her more than once. Daryl knew exactly what that look meant and he planned to abide by it. He had no intention of laying his hands on Beth Greene, he wouldn't even be looking at her at all if it weren't for her damn hair.

It was the sun's fault really, if you thought about it which Daryl tried very hard not to do. The light of the sun would fall on her head and it would cause the lightness of Beth's hair to gleam. He was a tracker after all, his eyes were trained to catch little things even if that thing was only a flicker of light. He couldn't exactly ignore it when her hair lit up like a freaking halo.

With the farm gone they spent the majority of their time outside and Daryl took to scouting ahead so that her magic glowing hair was behind his line of vision. They were in close quarters now, even with the lack of walls. The last thing Daryl needed was her daddy glaring at him even more.

As time went by the looks her father gave him had softened from piercing glares to something that Daryl might have thought resembled curiosity if he let himself think about it often. But those types of thoughts would bring up thoughts of Beth and he had decided that that line of thinking was no longer allowed.

There was a vast lack of luck left in this world but they must have managed to scrape up enough luck between themselves because they found a prison and claimed it as their own. The irony of their new home was not lost on Daryl. How many times in his life had he'd sworn he would never go to prison, never turn out like his father? The prison walls seemed to bring the others comfort but Daryl found himself itching to be outside of them. She'd turned her prison cell into a bedroom and Daryl marveled at the fact that she could turn such a dark place into a place of warmth.

Her hair didn't shine behind the prison walls. It was cleaner than he'd seen it since the farm since they'd managed to get showers rigged up but the sun couldn't reach quite far enough to hit her cell despite it's best efforts. Daryl found that his eyes still found her whenever she was near despite the lack of sun shining on her blonde hair. He told himself that it was because her hair was one of the few light things in this gray box but he still fled to the woods with every chance he could scramble up. It was easier to face the danger out there than the dangerous thoughts he could feel forming in his mind.

Their home was lost soon enough. He was surprised by the fact that he was actually surprised. With so few good things left in this world it made sense that everyone still breathing would be fighting to take them as their own. They'd lost everyone, either to death or this savage new world. Daryl felt that he would never see another living person again. There was only him and this girl whose hair the sun had taken to shining on again. He wondered if it was a sign that she was one of the last light things left in this world that was quickly becoming consumed in darkness. He wondered how long it would be before the darkness consumed her as well.

Neither of them had forgotten what it was like to live outside of walls. Their time in the prison had not erased the survival from their blood. After they had screamed themselves hoarse at each other and sent a blaze up into the sky they'd formed a bond that went beyond words. He knew that she noticed it now; the way his eyes trailed after her when she walked ahead of him, how his gaze lingered just a moment too long after she finished speaking. She had the good graces not to mention it although Daryl supposed he could just blame it on her hair.

This time it was not the light catching it that was drawing his eye but the amount of walker blood and ash that was clinging to it and turning it a strange russet color. He must have been bearing the signs of their act of arson as well for when they passed a stream Beth suggested they both clean up. It took them longer than it should have to wash the filth from themselves as they went one at a time so that they could pretend to preserve their modesty. Or at least Beth's. Daryl had already pissed in front of her after all, he didn't have much modesty left.

Once they were cleaned up Beth sat by the side of the stream and combed her fingers through her hair, wincing as they caught in the tangles. She looked up at Daryl imploringly and he sighed like this was asking so much of him even though he had dreamed about touching her hair for years. He sat beside her on a fallen log and took a lock of her hair in his hands. It was not soft like he'd imagined, but he had never imagined it soaking wet and knotted. Still, touching her hair felt sacred and they untangled her locks in companionable silence as the sun's rays dried her hair.

Now that he knew what her hair felt like wet he kept fantasying about what it would feel like dry. Would the softness he'd imagined be there then? Or was her hair rough after weeks of sleeping in the dirt? The sun hid behind heavy cloud coverage for several days as their search for other survivors was thrown a wrench as thick rain drops fell from the sky, erasing all signs they could have hoped to find of the others. Beth managed to spy a small lean-to in a thick cluster of trees and they spent three days holed up inside of it as the wind gusted through the cracks in the boards. The howl of the wind sounded like the growls of walkers and neither of them slept the first night, their eyes trained to the door that was held shut only by Daryl's fraying bandana and one tired looking knot.

As the second night drew to a close Beth was unable to keep her eyes open as they huddled next to each other so that some of their warmth might seep into the other. Daryl knew there was a far better way for them to use body heat to warm their freezing bodies but he wasn't about to suggest that. But when Beth scooted closer to him so that the sides of their bodies were pressed against each other he did not shy away, albeit that had nothing to do with the sudden warmth against his side and everything to do with her touching him. He held his breath as Beth rested her head against his shoulder, her hair tickled his cheek as she did so and Daryl wasn't surprised to find that it really was as soft as he'd imagined.

Days turned into weeks and still they found no one. No signs that anyone else had survived the fall of the prison even though Daryl knew that couldn't be the case. Sometimes he found himself wondering if he and Beth were the last two people left alive but then she would look up at him and smile a small smile meant only for him and he realized that wouldn't be so bad.

She was hurt and they were both running low on fuel when they found the funeral home. It was clean and stocked with provisions so Daryl was able to set aside the uneasiness he felt and agreed to let them rest up for a few days. Beth took his declaration with a sigh of relief so small that if Daryl hadn't been so used to her mannerism at this point he wouldn't have even picked up on it.

The windows in the home were covered so there was no sun to catch on her hair but as the night wore on he learned that candlelight had the same effect on her. Every time she moved light glistened off of her head. Daryl had never been a religious man but there were times he looked at Beth that he could have sworn she was proof of angels. Beth caught him looking at her and judging by the smile on her face she was now able to read Daryl as well as he was able to read her.

That night was the first night since the moonshine incident that they had slept with a roof over their heads. Daryl drew the straw for the second watch and when he awoke from his sleep in the coffin he felt more well rested than he had in months. The world outside of the funeral home was quiet, the only noise to be heard was the sound of his own breath and Beth's slow breathing as she slept.

In moments like this it was hard for Daryl to imagine that they would ever meet another living person. Sometimes, it was hard for him to even want too. But he still wanted to know what had happened to everyone after the prison. He wanted to see Rick, and Glenn, and Carl. He wanted Beth to see her sister again. He knew that somehow, they would all be together again.

Daryl had never been one for hope, he never saw the point in it. But as the sun rose and a small stubborn beam of sunlight made it's way through the wooden boards covering the windows to land on Beth's hair, making her gleam in the darkness, Daryl knew where his newfound hope had come from. Beth had taught him many things in the time they'd been together, such as not to underestimate people and that not every bad thing that happened was his fault, but the main thing she had taught him was to not give up even when things looked bleak.

This girl with the sunshine hair had brought more warmth and light into his heart than anyone had ever done in his entire life. Maybe she wasn't proof of angels after all. Maybe she was sunlight in human form. That would explain why it was always drawn to her, and even why Daryl couldn't keep his eyes off of her.

As if she could hear his thoughts Beth stirred, her eyes finding his the moment hers opened. "Why are you staring at me?" She asked, her voice groggy from sleep.

It was the sleep that had done it to him, he was sure of it. Being well-rested was such a foreign concept to him he might as well have downed half a bottle of tequila. His brain seemed to have lost control of his mouth for the words that slipped out might have been ones he was thinking but they were never ones he'd had any intention of saying.

"'Cause you're beautiful." His voice came out gruff and too loud for the moment. Beth blinked in surprise at his words before a slow sleepy smile spread across her face. She burrowed her face deeper into the pillow as the sunbeam seemed to make her whole body glow like she was part of the sun itself.

"Oh."


End file.
